Pride of British cruise ships head to Palma this month

The pride of Britain´s cruise fleet will be visiting Palma this month. The biggest British cruise ship, the P&O liner Arvia will be arriving in Palma on May 16. Six days earlier the Cunard liner, Queen Victoria, will be mooring up in the local port.

Queen Victoria is a Vista-class cruise ship operated by the Cunard Line and is named after the former British monarch Queen Victoria. The vessel is of the same basic design as other Vista-class cruise ships, including Queen Elizabeth. At 90,049 gross tonnage she is the smallest of Cunard's ships in operation.

Queen Victoria's theatre is the first at sea to have private boxes. There is also has a Winter Garden lounge with a retractable glass roof and a two-story library with a connecting spiral staircase.

At about 184,700 gross tonnage, Arvia is the largest ship to be commissioned for the British cruise market. She was floated out on 27 August 2022. Arvia's normal operating capacity is 5,200 passengers even though her maximum capacity if 3rd and 4th berths are used is 6,264 passengers.

Arvia was originally planned to embark her maiden voyage on 9 December 2022 but due to operational reasons, this was delayed to 23 December 2022. Her maiden voyage was a 14 night Canary Island cruise from Southampton. ^] On 2 March 2023, P&O cruises announced that Arvia's godmother will be Nicole Scherzinger. Delivery was originally planned for the first half of 2022, but later postponed to December 2022.